Obama Works the Working Women

Yesterday presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama addressed women in Fairfax, VA about his economic plan for working women. The coverage in today's Wall Street Journal (don't worry, there's a stipple of both Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton) took until the 16th paragraph to actually delve into what his plan was, filling in the preceeding paragraphs with a lot of crap about the completed primary race. I guess that explains the stipple of Hillary Clinton. By the time they got to it, they devoted a whole sentence to it.

The plan (pdf) is a little more detailed than that, and actually a lot of his proposals for "women" fit into his broader economic plans. He proposes raising the minimum wage to $9.50 by 2011, providing affordable health care (presumably through his plan to offer the government health care to the general public), provide 7 days of paid sick leave (part of the Family Medical Leave Act), and expanding tax cuts on child care. Interestingly enough, the one part that is specific to women and not to families is his endorsment of Hillary Clinton's Fair Pay Restoration Act, which he promises to sign into law. This law would restore the old precident of allowing women to sue for pay descrimination, renewing the alloted time period (usually 180 days) after each discriminatory pay check.

Video of the speech here:

American Lives Worth Less, Not Yet Worthless

Economists have decided that the value of an American life is, well, just not worth what it used to be. The price of an American is worth about $6.9 million, down $1 million in the last five years, according to an AP report. Remember that scene in Fight Club where Ed Norton explains that his company has a formula to determine if it’s worthwhile to do a recall on a deathtrap car? Apparently the government has a similar formula for figuring out if it’s worthwhile to enact safety policies:

Consider, for example, a hypothetical regulation that costs $18 billion to enforce but will prevent 2,500 deaths. At $7.8 million per person (the old figure), the lifesaving benefits outweigh the costs. But at $6.9 million per person, the rule costs more than the lives it saves, so it may not be adopted.

This is the result of the Environmental Protection agency “reevaluating” how much a life is worth. So this means a lot of environmental regulation, especially where the causes are harder to trace like asthma or pollution-related deaths, is just not worth it given the declining value of an American human. On a weird side note, apparently we’re worth more than our grandparents. The AP article says that the elderly are worth “38 percent less than that of people under 70.”

Cross posted on pushback.

Is Gardasil a Greater Danger Than HPV? Maybe Not

I take issue with Loryn’s post on the possible side effects of the Gardasil vaccine, which cites a CNN story that says 7,802 girls got sick after receiving it. They’re not yet sure if the sickness is linked to the vaccine, but the Center for Disease Control is investigating it. As for the ten confirmed deaths that occurred after taking Gardasil, none of them was linked to the vaccine. Regardless, even if the girls’ sickness is related to the vaccine (we’re mostly talking about nausea and vomiting) that’s about 3 percent of the 26 million shots that have been distributed worldwide since the drug was approved. That’s a very, very low rate of side effects for any drug, let alone an injection.

I’m not saying that Gardasil is totally safe. But the HPV vaccine is a drug, and much like other drugs, it has side effects and will make some people sick. Many people get sick after taking the flu vaccine, something recommended for millions of people every winter. What is certain to make women sick, though, is cancer. Women who contract HPV (one of the most commonly transmitted STDs, and one that doesn’t even require you to have sex since it’s transmitted via skin-to-skin contact) are likely to get cervical cancer. Chemotherapy will definitely make you sick to the stomach, as would the side effects from the anesthesia from the lasering procedure to remove cancerous cells.

The reason people get so alarmist about Gardasil is because it involves parents thinking about the fact that one day their girls will become sexually active. I’m undecided about forcing young women to get the vaccine. I definitely think girls should get it, but if parents are truly concerned about the temporary stomachache, they should have the ability to opt out. But that could put their girls at risk later in life.

Cross posted on Pushback.

Glamocracy Often a Waste of Space

Why oh why do girl blogs make women sound like idiots? Glamour’s blog, Glamocracy, has one-upped itself again. (Pretty much the only blogger I like there is Megan Carpentier, who also blogs for Jezebel.) In any case, good old MSM mag Glamour has published a post by right-wing hack and Town Hall blogger Amanda Carpenter declaring that she finds the “‘youth vote’ annoying.” Of course a conservative woman like Carpenter finds young people who trend heavily progressive actually showing up to vote annoying. Then the policies she supports are less popular.

But then, Fernanda Diaz writes a quasi-defense of young people that makes her sound uninformed. She says that Carpenter made a “bold statement” by declaring the youth vote is annoying. If Diaz knew anything about the political blogosphere, she would understand that Carpenter is not making anything close to a “bold statement,” but rather harping on the same old perspective she always does.

But Diaz agrees with Carpenter that stories about the youth vote are boring and present a “watered down” version of politics. That’s sometimes a fair criticism. Young people are just as informed about politics about older people. In some cases, young people are better informed than older generations. Media shouldn’t be so surprised when young people care. After all, plenty of issues, like the failing economy and the war, disproportionately affect our generation.

But if Diaz is going to write that media are too condescending to young people, then why does she make quite an unsophisticated argument–Obama is really inspiring to young people–and refer to us as “kids”? I’d say that’s pretty condescending.

Maybe Glamour should just save themselves from embarrassment (or hire some real bloggers who are more on Megan’s skill level) and not engage in arguments with Carpenter as if she’s saying anything thoughtful.

Cross posted.

Suicide Research

In this rather creepy story from Inside Higher Ed today, they talk about some of the challenges in studying a taboo topic like suicide. A Canadian university recently withdrew funding for two different research projects due to ethical concerns. From one perspective, suicide researchers are suffering from huge gaps in information due to their lack of ability to observe suicide attempts. On the other hand, there's a large ethical concern in observing suicide and not doing anything to stop it.

This is indicative of how academic study is subject to the whims of popular opinion, even if such research could end up being valuable. After all, what if researchers discovered something that might prevent future suicides through observation? That's not to say the ethical concerns aren't valid, but it also shows that researchers face just as much scrutiny as other professions.

Brian

TPM pretty much has the gist of it, but Brian Beutler was shot three times during a mugging attempt. Brian is in good spirits and is expected to make a full recovery. Brian was one of my very first friends in D.C., and I'm pleased he'll be up and back to hellraising in no time. I'm gonna go ahead and refer to Ezra's graph on the gun issue.

Abortions Down Slightly in Minnesota

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports today that abortions are down slightly in Minnesota. But that’s pretty much all the article says, making it little more than a regurgitation of highlights of Minnesota’s state-law-mandated health department report (pdf). The reporter called, um, no one for comment. In fact, the only quote in the article is from Scott Fischbach, the executive director of the anti-choice organization Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, and came from a press release the group put out.

I managed to get a hold of Kathi Di Nicola, director of media relations for Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. She acknowledged that the Star Tribune is working on a lengthier piece, and noted that Planned Parenthood works on many fronts to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies. That includes a whole host of issues enveloping abortion, women’s health care, access to birth control, and comprehensive sex education.

The issue of abortion is tied to the larger issue of access to affordable health care. “We’re witnessing the health care crisis firsthand,” Di Nichola said. Given that women need more regular health care, she noted that many women who lose health insurance due to economic hardship are relying on Planned Parenthood as a “safety net” for health care. “We’ve pulled apart preventing unintended pregnancies and abortion as two separate issues,” she said, when in fact both are part of the larger issue of access to health care. “It’s a complex problem.”

Minnesota is one of the more than 20 states that are refusing federal funding set aside for abstinence-only education, but Planned Parenthood’s advocacy affiliate worked in the state house to pass a law called Responsible Family Life and Sexuality Education (RFLSE), legislation that would mandate “comprehensive, medically accurate, and age appropriate curriculum.” The law made its way into an omnibus spending bill but was dropped due to a veto threat.

While Minnesota can certainly highlight the fact that fewer abortions were necessary, Di Nichola made it clear that this is merely one aspect of a messy health care crisis–a crisis worsened by a lack of access to comprehensive education. Of course, preventing teenagers from having access to effective sex education is more or less a permanent platform of groups like Minnesota Family Council, which opposed the RFLSE bill in the hopes that talking about not having sex will make teenagers chaste.

Cross posted.